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1/11/2013 10:30PM

Indian Road Trip: Produce's Long Haul to Market

India has the second-highest output of fruits and vegetables in the world, but more than a third of what is produced rots before reaching consumers. WSJ's Amol Sharma tags along on the journey of Indian produce from farm to table.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... Sts India has the second highest altitude fruits vegetables in the world ... with more than a third of what is produced each year ... about twelve billion dollars more ... runs before ever reaching consumers ... things shoddy rose for storage and arcade farm loans ... for big retailers like Wal Mart trying to get a foothold in the market ... sourcing fresh produce in India can be a logistical nightmare ... to get a feel for the process we track the journey of a few rows of vegetables ... farming villages in North India to the capital New Delhi ... on day one we set out around eighty and to me the farmer in KD village which are produced eight ... as is often the case in rural India ... the access roads are terrible ... we've reached a bit of or obstacle if there are car have to get through this ... I dried up riverbed to get to the other side where our farmer and ... so on ... Puerto Battelle probable ... this is pretty standard ... we arrive around nine thirty this farmer remains China's harvesting a variety of court known as green pumpkin ... the whole family is helping ... the quality of this year's crop is disappointing because there hasn't been enough rain ... party so there are no backup waterway ... that's why we have to suffer such hardship ... what can be done without water ... China expects to earn about ten dollars this week to support his family of eight ... after a China break ... and a few hours of rest it on both the produce into a rusty old Jeep that he's rented with some neighbors ... the destination ... a government sanctioned wholesale market about forty five minutes away it is only what ... we hop in for the ride ... reading back then ... some additional passengers join us on the way ... one rides on the hood ... when we reach out well for market ... John starts looking for a buyer ... this produce is headed for Punjab state ... we part company with him here ... Wednesday to wear jackets at all for ... this time to track co produce gets from here to New Delhi ... one of the cities were big foreign retailers are likely to set up their supermarkets ... the snow storage or even tables to display the fruit ... farmers simply drop off their goods on the sidewalk ... for a cut of about four percent on every transaction ... licensed Mittleman negotiate sales of the produce to traders who will then take the vegetables on the next leg of the journey to Delhi ... Elaine ... Wal-Mart and other retailers would much rather skip this process ... can buy directly from farmers ... but that isn't allowed in most Indian states thanks to laws dating back to the nineteen fifties ... the central government is now pushing states to relax those rules ... supporters say big retailers will put more money into the pockets of farmers ... and bring in new technology like cold storage warehouses and refrigerated van ... but licensed middleman such an Bunsow ... says bypassing the traditional Indian food chain ... would put a lot of people out of work ... including him ... up on them ... a man ... is meaning ... there is a laborer who are most producer much out ... there is the truck owner who carry the goods from here to Delhi ... there is a believer of will unload tickets and only ... then there's the middleman at the wholesale market and telling who will also get some ... you would be virtually sensing these five six people to death ... I'm not satisfied with this ... Mrs ... you know ... so here we did have trailed the batch of cucumber is that headed to Delhi ... the traders bought them from a farmer for five rupees per kilogram ... for about four cents per pound ... they're loaded into a cargo truck for the hundred forty mile journey ... we leave early in the evening ... once again the roads are treacherous ... we see an overturned tractor that was carrying vegetables ... after a stop to pick up some more sexy cucumbers ... are churches now overloaded ... we take a detour is night falls to avoid the worst potholes and find some decent growth ... we reached the design work wholesale market outside New Delhi at around twelve thirty am after a seven hour journey ... it's one of the world's largest and busiest wholesale markets ... four point five million tons of produce good scandals here every year ... and when he gets wasted ... the ride ... the core wholesale market to unload a few covers this ... looks like ... and that now that I've got some of these buyers take a look ... evaluate the analysts ... say ... another middlemen negotiate a price for the cucumbers and takes his time ... the vegetables sell for about ten rupees per kilo ... double the initial price ... the trader who buys them plans to take them to yet another wholesale market about an hour away ... he hangs around for few hours before his team looked up his truck in around five am ... by six thirty and we've reached a wholesale market and are down to southwest of daily ... the trader were following has laid out his inventory and TARP including or cucumbers ... he's ready to sell the best book art vendors and small retailers ... Surry Chauhan owns a nearby convenience store ... he stops by and he's doing his morning rounds to stock up an inventory ... he buys our cucumbers for about triple the original price many loads up on other produce ... Joe Byrne reaches his story a little after TV and ... after passing through the hands of five intermediaries ... the cucumbers are finally ready to be sold to consumers ... the ... job done says the price ... of thirty one rupees for Q and ... an increase of about five hundred twenty percent from a day earlier ... for The Wall Street Journal this is um old charm ...